Kuwait Plans Tender for Refinery, Clean-Fuel Project Consultants

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait plans to issue a tender
within four weeks to choose consultants for its new refinery and
clean-fuel projects, the state-run news agency KUNA reported
today, citing an official.

Each consulting contract will cost about $300 million and
there may be as many as nine international pre-qualified
consultants for the projects, the news service cited Fahad al-Ajmi, chairman of Kuwait National Petroleum Co., as saying. The
budget for the projects, planned to be completed by 2018, is
about 8.5 billion dinars ($30.5 billion), al-Ajmi said,
according to KUNA.

Kuwait National, the state-run refiner, is awaiting final
approval from the Supreme Petroleum Council, the country’s
highest decision-making body for oil policy, on the 615,000
barrel-a-day refinery. Kuwait National approached companies
including Fluor Corp. of Irving, Texas, Technip SA and U.K.-
based Amec Plc to work as project management consultants, KNPC’s
spokesman said in a Sept. 27 interview.

The Al-Zour project, which will help meet domestic demand,
stalled three years ago amid political opposition. The project
got the first approval from the Supreme Council last June.